Page 5 of Owned & Bred by the BRATVA

Not until her mind caught up to what her body already knew.

I sit back in the leather chair behind my desk, hands loose in my lap, but every inch of me is wound tight with need. My cock throbs with a deep ache it hasn’t felt in years. She’s only been here a matter of hours, and already she’s in my bloodstream like a drug. I can still smell her in my space. Clean, warm, and flushed. I saw her pupils dilate. I saw the flush creep down her throat. I saw the way her legs tensed when I spoke. She’s never been around a man like me. Never been around a man at all.

She was raised like a delicate thing in a box. All edges wrapped in cotton wool. All choices made for her. No exposure. No temptation. No knowledge of her own power.

Until now.

And I’m the one who will show it to her. Slowly. Thoroughly. Brutally, if I have to.

She’s mine.

I lean back in my chair and let the memory bleed through. It was six weeks ago. Late evening. The air thick with desperation and expensive whiskey.

Raymond Donahue had always been a coward. The kind of man who talked like a king until someone stronger entered the room. When he called for the meeting, I knew what he wanted before he even asked.

He poured his own drink with shaking hands. “It’s temporary,” he’d said. “A way to buy me time. You know how things move in the city. I’ve had a few slow months, but the market will turn. Once it does, I’ll repay the debt.”

I hadn’t sat down. I just watched him from across his study, arms folded, letting the silence stretch long enough to make him sweat.

“You’ve had more than a few slow months,” I finally said. “You’re six million in the ground.”

He smiled like he thought charm could fix it. “You’re a reasonable man. You don’t want to burn a bridge.”

“Some bridges beg to be lit.”

He went quiet for a moment. Then he sat back and said, too casually, “I have something you might be interested in.”

That’s when I knew he was going to say her name.

He didn’t meet my eyes when he said it. “Clara. She’s… innocent. Kept out of everything.”

“You’re offering me your daughter as collateral or to wipe off your debt?”

His jaw tightened. “I’m offering you something valuable in exchange for time.”

And the worst part? He didn’t even flinch. He just sipped his drink and stared out the window like he was talking about pawning off a car, not a woman. Nothis daughter.

I remember thinking how fitting it was. That a man who kept his daughter locked away like a secret would eventually sell her to a man like me. Not because he was cruel, though he is, but because he saw her as something he owned.

That was his mistake.

She was never his to own.

I told him I’d consider the offer. That I wanted to see her first. From a distance. Make sure she was still untouched, unspoiled, all the things he promised.

He didn’t argue.

That day, I watched her from a security feed. She was in the garden, standing alone beneath the cypress trees. White dress. Barefoot. A book in her hand, forgotten. Her face tilted toward the sky like she was searching for something beyond the walls.

And I knew. I fucking knew.

She was mine. I could see it in the tilt of her mouth, the restlessness in her fingers, the way she didn’t quite belong in her own skin. She’d been waiting her whole life for someone to come and claim her. Even if she didn’t know it yet.

Even if she thought she wanted freedom.

Now she is under my roof. The bargain went sour when Raymond’s other debtors started calling. Before I knew it the deal had changed. I get Clara as my wife, Raymond got ten million to clear his debts and start over.

I run a hand over my face, jaw clenched tight.

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